Armstrong 1: Correspondence

LAW OFFICES OF

BARRETT S. L1TT

BARRETT S. LITT
MICHAEL S. MAGNTJSON
CARLA BARBOZA

THE OVTATT BUILDING
617 SOUTH OLIVE STREET, SUITE 1000
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90014
TELEPHONE: (213) 623-7S11

September 7, 1983

Julia Dragojevic
Contos and Bunch
5855 Topanga Canyon Boulevard
Suite 400

Woodland Hills, California 91367

Re: Church of Scientoloav v. Armstrong, No. C 420 153

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Dear Ms. Dragojevic:

This letter is offered jointly on behalf of Mary Sue Hubbard and
the Church of Scientology of California and is addressed to the
injunction aspects of the above-entitled case. As you are aware,
this case centers on the right to possession of five cartons of
documents currently held under seal by the Superior Court. Pur¬
suant to the terms of the preliminary injunction issued by Judge
Cole October 4, 1982, these materials, previously held by Mr.
Armstrong and/or his attorneys, were ordered "retained in the
possession of the clerk of this court during pendency of this
action or until further order of the court."

On April 22, 1983, a hearing was held on the motion by the Church
of Scientology and Mrs. Hubbard to modify the preliminary injunc¬
tion requesting, primarily, the return of these materials to the
Church. This motion was denied, Judge Savitch concluding that he
saw no new information which would justify changing Judge Cole's
prior ruling. There is now, as you are aware, precisely such new
information.

Since the April 22 hearing, further discovery, particularly the
deposition of Omar Garrison taken July 12, 1983, has established
that there is absolutely no factual or legal basis for any claim
that Gerald Armstrong has any current right to possession of the
materials under seal. This letter is to formally request, there¬
fore, that Mr. Armstrong withdraw his claim and permit the sealed
documents to be returned to the Church of Scientology.

Specifically, you will recall that Mr. Armstrong testified,
during his January 14 deposition, that most of the documents in
question belonged to Mr. Hubbard and that others belonged to Mrs.
Hubbard and to the Church (D. Tr. pp. 116-117). He further
claimed that the documents belonged to him "until the biography
project is completed." (D. Tr. p. 113). As you know, Mr.
Armstrong has repeatedly denied that he actually owns any of
these materials. (See August 17 deposition transcript of Mr.
Armstrong.) Mr. Armstrong's possession argument is based solely
on his claimed responsibility to complete the biography project,
which, as I shall now discuss, has been completed and no longer
exists.

August 27, 1983
J. Drajojevic
Page 2

Omar Garrison had, alone, been retained as the the L. Ron Hubbard
biographer. Mr. Armstrong, while a Church of Scientology staff
member, was appointed by the Church to assist Mr. Garrison as a
researcher. This was pursuant to a contract between AOSH D.K.
Publications and Mr. Garrison. Mr. Garrison has testified, how¬
ever, that as of May, 1982, he ceased working on the Hubbard
biography under that contract (D. Tr., pp. 52-53). He continued
to work on the Hubbard biography, but not the one contemplated by
the contract (pursuant to which Mr. Armstrong was assigned) and
not to be published by the publisher that had signed that agree¬
ment ( Id. ). Therefore, at least since May, 1982, the L. Ron
Hubbard biography project contract terminated and any claim that
Mr. Armstrong had an obligation to Mr. Garrison under this con¬
tract has no legitimacy. Mr. Garrison also testified that the
materials provided him were understood to be private and
confidential and were provided to him only for his use on the
biography project. Thus, Mr. Garrison's own testimony discredits
any claim by Mr. Armstrong of his entitlement to the documents
from the very inception of these proceedings.

Moreover, Mr. Garrison testified that he has now ceased work on
any Hubbard biography altogether. Attached to his deposition is
a public statement of a settlement agreement between Mr.

Garrison and New Era Publications (successor to D.K. Publica¬
tions) concerning the contract to produce a biography of L. Ron
Hubbard. Mr. Garrison testified that he will not publish a bio¬
graphy of L. Ron Hubbard, he is not working on a biography of
L. Ron Hubbard, and that he has returned to the Church of Scien¬
tology all materials made available to him for purposes of pro¬
ducing the biography. He further testified that he makes no cur¬
rent claim to either own or possess these materials, or to have a
right of possession of or access to them. Thus, it is clear that
any claim of Mr. Armstrong that is dependent upon the existence
of the biography project is now meaningless.

Under these circumstances, I cannot conceive of a basis for Mr.
Armstrong to continue to refuse to return these materials to the
Church. As you are aware, Mrs. Hubbard and the Church have
reached an understanding on maintaining the privacy of these
documents, and she and the Church agree that the Church will con¬
tinue to hold the materials in accord with that understanding.
Accordingly, I suggest that you review with Mr. Armstrong your
position in this regard and determine whether, in light of these
recent developments, Mr. Armstrong will voluntarily abandon his
claim to current possession of these documents. Please be
advised that we intend-to seek sanctions under CCP §128.5 if
further recourse to the courts is necessary to resolve this
aspect of the case.

V * :s,

Barrett S. Litt

BSL:ams

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